The vital nature of electrical power systems to modern society is well recognized. For instance, the Report of the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack, Critical National Infrastructures, US Government Printing Office, April 2008, states at page 17:                The functioning of society and the economy is critically dependent upon the availability of electricity. Essentially every aspect of American society requires electrical power to function. Contemporary U.S. society is not structured, nor does it have the means, to provide for the needs of nearly 300 million Americans without electricity. Continued electrical supply is necessary for sustaining water supplies, production and distribution of food, fuel, communications, and everything else that is a part of our economy. Continuous, reliable electrical supply within very tight frequency boundaries is a critical element to the continued existence and growth of the United States and most developed countries.        
The foregoing Commission Report further discusses the threat of attack to electrical power systems by an electromagnetic pulse arising from a nuclear explosion, and also refers to the naturally occurring threats to electrical power systems from geomagnetic storms. Commission Report at page 18. As used herein, electrical power systems connotes systems for generating electrical power, transmitting that power over short to long distances and distributing that power to end users.
Based on published empirical data, it is generally accepted that an EMP event can render various components of an electrical power system inoperative. Two such electrical components, electrical generators for producing electricity and electrical transformers for stepping up or stepping down voltage levels as required for power transmission or distribution, are obviously vital. If generators or transformers cease to operate, the power system fails and society as we know it ends. Both components require a long lead time to build (e.g., 3-5 years for transformers and up to 10 years for generators) if the demand from them is normal; that is, if failures occur after expected product lifetimes. However, if the demand for generators and transformers surge due to their premature failure resulting from an EMP event, the lead time to build them increases even further and likely dramatically.
It would therefore be desirable to provide a method for preventing various forms of EMP from reaching and rendering inoperative components of a power supply system. The various forms of EMP include an unwanted transient electromagnetic pulse arising from nuclear electromagnetic pulse events (NEMP), non-nuclear electromagnetic pulse (NNEMP) events creating a pulse with a rise time of less than 500 picoseconds and a field strength (e.g., in excess of 20 volts per meter) sufficient to reach and render inoperative components of an electrical power supply system as defined above, or geomagnetically-induced currents (GIC) arising from coronal mass ejections of solar storms or other EMP events. These EMP's are classified herein as extraordinary electromagnetic pulses (EEMP's).
Another problem in the prior art relates to how to accurately measure high-speed current pulses, such as GIC. Prior art techniques for high speed current-pulse measurements are almost exclusively inferential. The U.S. National Institute of Standard and Technologies (NIST) prefers direct measurements wherever possible rather than inferential measurements. The numerical calculations associated with inferential measurement techniques increase the likelihood of errors in correcting raw data to inferentially arrive at an actual measurement. This is because the numerical calculations required are complex, there is an impetus to simplify the calculations, a process which almost always leads to the introduction of errors.
There are three overriding reasons for having a high-accuracy high-speed current shunt, as follows:                1. Provide real-time monitoring means to guide the manufacture of devices to protect electrical components of a power system from EEMP events.        2. Provide high speed output for control circuitry.        3. Provide high speed output for system operator notification of an EEMP event.        
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a direct technique for measurement of high-speed current pulses.